Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits played their best match of the district schedule on Friday against Iowa Park, but unfortunately the team lost in the fifth set.
The Lady Hawks won 3-2, coming back from a 2-1 deficit against a Lady Rabbits team desperately needing something good to happen for them.
Bowie came into the match looking for its first district win and playing for pride now that a playoff berth is not possible. Iowa Park needed to a win to keep it in the playoff hunt.
The Lady Rabbits played well in a competitive first set and was able to close it out to win 25-22 and take an early lead.
Unfortunately, that did not carry over to set two. The Lady Hawks got an early lead and Bowie just never recovered. Iowa Park won easily 25-12 to tie the match at 1-1.
In the third set it was the Lady Rabbits that got the early lead, but the Lady Hawks were able to hover around and even tie the score up at 15-15 midway through.
Bowie was able to close out the set well, winning 25-20 to take a 2-1 lead and being one set away from its first district victory.
Unfortunately, set four was not the set. Iowa Park had the lead from the beginning, but the Lady Rabbits were doing a good job of staying within reach of two or three points.
Down 16-14, the Lady Hawks opened up the lead and went on to finish the set on a 9-3 run to win the set 25-18. With the score tied at 2-2, it was heading into the fifth set.
Usually the fifth set is its own thing, independent of anything that came before it.
With the stakes being at its highest and with the set ending at 15 instead of 25, everything is much more heightened and things like momentum are not always a factor in the set.
Unfortunately, the momentum from the end of set four did carry over for the Lady Hawks into set five.
While the opening five points were back and forth as Iowa Park led only 3-2, after that it was all the Lady Hawks.
Iowa Park won 12 of the final 13 points as it won the set 15-3 and the match 3-2.

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians took care of Petrolia at home on Saturday afternoon quickly.
The Lady Indians won in straight sets 3-0 against the Lady Pirates.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss in the last three seasons at Windthorst and needed a pick-me-up match.
It proved to be one as the Lady Indians won sets in rapid succession 25-10, 25-11 and 25-12.
Raylea Bowles led the team with nine kills. Meg Meekins had a team high 13 assists and nine digs while adding six kills.

Saint Jo vs Bellevue
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers wrapped up the first round of district play with a quick win at Bellevue on Friday.
The Lady Panthers won in straight sets 3-0 against the inexperienced Lady Eagles.
Saint Jo came in undefeated in district had yet to drop a set even. Bellevue was 1-2 and hoping it could maybe catch the confident Lady Panthers napping.
Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, Saint Jo was focused from beginning to end, making quick work of Bellevue with set scores 25-11, 25-10 and 25-5.

Prairie Valley vs Forestburg
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs won at Forestburg on Friday night to wrap up the first round of district play.
The Lady Bulldogs won 3-1 against the Lady Horns.
Prairie Valley came into the match confident it could secure second place in district against a Forestburg team that had worked through adversity but also had a district record of 2-1.
The Lady Bulldogs came in and won the first set 25-13 to take a lead. Thinking the match would be easy, instead the Lady Horns came back and won the closest set of the match 25-21 to tie the score up at 1-1.
The loss seemed to wake Prairie Valley back up and the Lady Bulldogs went on to win the next two sets 25-16 and 25-15 to secure the victory.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Bowie game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6869807&T=1

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears easily won their fourth straight game with a home win against Throckmorton on Friday.
The Bears won 78-19, winning by mercy rule at halftime against the Greyhounds.
Gold-Burg came into the game confident on a three game win streak while Throckmorton had yet to win a game and had a young team overall.
The Bears got on the board first when Levi Hellinger found Eli Freeland for a 25-yard touchdown pass. Surprisingly, the Greyhounds answered back, capping their first drive with a short run to cut the lead to 8-6.
That would be the only kind of pushback Gold-Burg would allow as the Bears woke up and started to dominate.
Keelyn Case scored on a 20-yard run to extend Gold-Burg’s lead to 16-6. The defense got a quick stop and Caleb Epperson then got loose for a 35-yard touchdown run.
The Bears then recovered the onside kick and then scored when Hellinger found Case for a short touchdown pass. Following another stop on defense, Paul Jones scored on a 65-yard run.
Still in the first quarter, Gold-Burg’s Epperson recovered a fumble at midfield to force a turnover. Jones again found a lane and scored one play later on a 39-yard run.
The Bears led 46-6 heading into the second quarter.
Gold-Burg kept the foot pedal on the gas. Hayden Chambers recovered a fumble on defense on the first play of the new quarter. A few plays later saw Case score on a 15-yard run.
The next drive the defense not just recovered its third straight fumble of the game, but Barrett Allen recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.
Even as Gold-Burg started to pull starters from the game with the win wrapped up, the Bears just could not stop making plays.
Jones recovered a fumble on defense for Gold-Burg’s fourth forced turnover of the game.
Backup quarterback Payton Epperson then found Case open for a 25-yard touchdown strike that had the whole sideline fired up.
Eventually, with so many young and inexperienced bench players in the game and when Throckmorton finally got a handle on the ball, the Greyhounds scored on a long run to answer back. At that time it cut the Bears lead down to 70-12 with 5:38 still left before halftime.
Gold-Burg’s offense got one more highlight on the night when Payton Epperson unleashed a 43-yard bomb to Allen for a touchdown, again delighting the whole sideline for connecting on another unexpectedly perfect throw.
Throckmorton was able to score one more time on a 22-yard run before the Bears kneeled the ball to end the game at halftime.
Gold-Burg won 78-19.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers started out district well with a blowout win at Savoy on Friday night.
The Panthers won 50-0, winning by mercy-rule early in the third quarter against a Cardinals’ team they knew they could beat with little trouble.
Saint Jo came into the game confident coming off its biggest win of the season against an undefeated Perrin-Whitt team to improve to 6-0.
On the other hand, Savoy came into the game with a 1-5 record, having last won in the second week of the season.
The Panthers were led by Devin Stewart who completed seven passes for 107 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 79 yards and scored one touchdown.
Blayton Calabrese had a team high 88 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns. Wyatt Lucas rushed for 37 yards and scored one touchdown.
Lee Yeley caught a team high three passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns. Mathew Sampson caught the other touchdown pass on a 19-yard catch.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a competitive game against Azle Christian on Friday night.
The Fighting Crusaders won 61-45 against a Longhorn team that is getting a little healthier but still working through inexperienced growing pains.
Forestburg came into the game 1-5, but had hope it could play a 3-2 Azle Christian team well at home.
The Crusaders got on the board on their first two drives and led 13-0. The Longhorns answered right before the end of the quarter with Tye Reid running in a touchdown from 15 yards out.
Forestburg trailed 13-8 heading into the second quarter.
The Longhorns took the lead early in the quarter with Reid scoring on a 21-yard run, going up 16-13.
Azle hit on a long touchdown pass to regain the lead before Forestburg answered back with Christian Binanti scoring on a 41-yard run to go up 24-20.
The Crusaders then scored on back-to-back drives on touchdown passes to go up 10 points. Right before halftime, Jesus Sanchez found Binanti for a 17-yard touchdown pass.
The Longhorns trailed only 34-30 at halftime.
Azle opened the third quarter by hitting on another long touchdown pass to up its lead to 10 points.
Sanchez answered when he then returned the kickoff for a touchdown to again cut the lead down to one score 40-37.
Unfortunately, Forestburg’s offense ran out of juice in the second half while the Crusaders kept it up.
Azle scored on another long pass and a short run before the quarter ended to extend its lead to 54-37.
In the fourth quarter, the Crusaders added one final score on a short run. Right before time ran out, the Longhorns saw Sanchez deliver one final big offensive play when he got loose for a 35-yard touchdown run.
It made the final 61-45.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Gold-Burg game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6869808&T=1

Hannah was confused.
Last thing she remembered was her college roommate and best friend Audrey Kubis taking her to the emergency room after a few days of being sick. When her face got some mysterious blue dots, her mom, a nurse herself, insisted her roommate take her to the ER.
While waiting to get checked in she fell asleep.
When she woke up she was hooked on to machines that were helping her breathe, several of her limbs were black and her family was more happy and relieved to see her.
What happened, she wondered?
Hannah had been in a coma for 12 days and her life had changed forever.
College girl
Hannah Reyling is the 22-year-old daughter of Paulette and Chris Reyling. She was born and raised in Saint Jo where she graduated in 2021. She has an older sister named Ashley who also went to Saint Jo High School.
An active child, Hannah participated in many sports leagues in neighboring Nocona. She quickly found out basketball was not her thing and gravitated towards volleyball.
“I don’t like when people touch me like in basketball,” Hannah said. “Girls are mean, so I just didn’t like the physical part of it. In volleyball, you don’t crash into each other, or you aren’t supposed to anyway. So I just like that about it. It can be very clean, but also very messy sometimes. It should have the same pass, hit rhythm to it and kind of never gets old when it’s executed like that.”
Hannah dove into the sport growing up and played on club teams. It paid off in high school, getting her onto the varsity team by her sophomore year and helping the team to the regional tournament twice in 2018 and 2020 as an outside hitter. She was named a Texas Sports Writers Association 1A all-state honorable mention in 2018 and was the district’s most valuable player in 2020.
She was listed at 5’8”, tall enough to comfortably play at the net at Saint Jo. Hannah also had a powerful frame that could put some oomph on her spikes, though more often she was looking to place her hits.
Playing for Coach Charlie Hamilton at the time, she and her teammates helped set the standard for what modern Saint Jo volleyball teams have risen to.
“I played with a lot of good people,” Reyling said. “In 1A, there are not very many setters that are very good, but all throughout high school I had really good setters. Just playing with people who had the skills and actually cared made it a lot of fun.”
Being at a 1A school like Saint Jo, Hannah of course got talked into playing basketball for a couple of seasons, threw shot put and discus in track and was a cheerleader some years. Still, volleyball was and still is her love.
That was my last experience with Hannah three years ago, covering her exploits in sports. Interviewing her in late July at her parents’ home, I never knew she wore glasses since she never wore them when she played.
Even with the success on the court, Hannah went to college to study. Initially she went to Texas Women’s University before transferring to Tarleton State University after one semester. She was pursuing a degree in nutrition, but was not sure on the career path.
After two years of college, she made the conscious choice coming into the fall semester of 2023 to start saying yes to more things and also to be more social beyond just playing intramural sports.
She joined the sorority Phi Mu, despite jests from her father about buying friends and it paid off big time for Hannah.
“Just seeing how the girls are all together all the time,” Hannah said. “I had friends before the sorority, but they were involved and I wanted to be more involved. It was fun and I met a lot of people through it.”
On top of college classes, she now was making time for sorority activities as well as working at a coffee shop/pizza place called Cold Smoke Craft House. She kept up with her love of volleyball by volunteering to assistant coach of a club team as well as intramurals. She even had the thought about hosting a summer volleyball camp in Saint Jo.
Hannah was busy, but loving life as things looked to continue this way at the start of the 2024 winter semester.
The illness
She was coming off a sinus infection from January, but felt good and healthy enough that she was playing in a kickball sorority event in late-February. Two days of sickness followed, with her feeling weak and throwing up. When she woke with blue dots on her face going to the emergency room immediately was a decision that saved her life.
“She’s filling out my papers,” Hannah recalls. “I was really thirsty and they wouldn’t give me water, so I just fell asleep. I woke up in Parkland hospital 12 days later.”
Her mother explained during those lost 12 days, Hannah was diagnosed with bacterial meningococcal meningitis and had purpura lesions that caused blisters on her arms and legs that went as deep as the bone. The infection affects the brain and spinal cord. While in the coma she was transferred to Harris Methodist in Fort Worth. Her body went into sepsis which turned her feet and fingers black.
Her family immediately came to the hospital when things took a turn. They were unaware their lives were about to change.
“She had to be ventilated on day two,” Paulette said. “They told us right away in the emergency room in Harris they feared for her life.”
The family never lost faith even when things looked dire 11 days later and there was little hope coming from the doctors.
“They came in and told us she probably wasn’t going to make it,” Paulette said. “She was still on a vent and not waking up. They were taking her off all medication to try and get her to wake up. They brought in the chaplain and everything so it was pretty emotional at that point for us that she probably wasn’t going to wake up. They told us she most likely would have brain damage if she did wake up because of the meningitis.”
The next day the family’s prayers were answered.
“She just, woke up,” Paulette said. “She wanted the tube out. She knew what we were saying, knew who we were. I mean it was just miraculous. We couldn’t believe it. It was like she was pulling a joke on the doctor, going no I’m not going to die.”
Despite her mental capacity being fine, her body was not. On top of the rough shape her hands and feet were in, her kidneys were in bad shape and she had to be put on dialysis several times.
She also was intubated several times which damaged her vocal cords and affects her speaking voice to this day, sounding as though her voice is hoarse after a day of yelling. Her inability to raise her voice causes her annoyance when she wants to tell her dog to settle down during the interview. She has been told the damage is not permanent and says it is much better than it was months ago.
Hannah was transferred to Parkland Hospital in Dallas since her mom said the previous hospital had not expected her to live and was not equipped to deal with the aftermath of her now black limbs.
Parkland has a burn unit and even though Hannah had not been burned, her limbs were not in good shape due to the sepsis. Eventually by the end of end of March, the difficult decision to amputate both legs, her left hand and most of her right fingers was made.
“My phantom pain was really bad in my legs,” Hannah said. “I would have sensations of my toes being crossed over one another. Not necessarily painful, but just annoying, to feel that and not be able to fix it. A pulling in my Achilles, sharp pains in my legs. It really just was super weird.”
She got to save her left knee thanks to many different things, including leech therapy.
Hannah also got to keep her right thumb, which she appreciates being right handed so she can still work and be addicted to her phone like a normal college age person. She excitedly used it to show me pictures of some of the things she described during the interview, including the leeches.
In all the total amount of surgeries, including all of the skin grafts, amounts to six. Her nurses and doctors got to know her so well, they threw her a surprise birthday party since she would be released only a few days before her 22nd birthday. She got to come home on June 19, 111 days from the day Audrey took her to the emergency room and now lives with her parents in Saint Jo.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.